Anta Champion Dragon Suit Against Lining, Who Will Win The London Olympic Games?

In 2012, when the traditional sports goods industry collectively suffered from inventory pressure, the traditional marketing methods that relied on the continuous opening of shops and increasing profits seemed to have been unable to recover. Therefore, the collective betting of the London Olympic Games became an important turning point for their turnover.

In May 17th, Anta announced a high-profile Olympic strategy and revealed that the Chinese Olympic champion won the London Olympic Games.

The theme of the design is "champion dragon clothing". After more than half a month, Lining also announced the launch of its "dragon scale" competition suit with dragon theme. At this point, the Olympic marketing situation of the domestic sports brand began to become full.

Anta takes the lead in the Olympic Games

It has to be said that Anta's Olympic marketing is ahead of others.

As the strategic cooperation partner of the highest level of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Anta sports in 2009 reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chinese Olympic Committee. According to the agreement, the Chinese Olympic Committee will pack the Olympic cycle of 2009 to 2012, and Anta sports is authorized to sponsor the Chinese sports delegation to participate in the 11 major international competitions, such as the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games.

According to the analysis of past sponsorship, market participants believe that Anta spent more than 600 million yuan.

Holding the golden key of COC's strategic cooperation partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Anta London Olympic marketing is on the higher level: together with International Olympic Committee partners, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's and Chinese Olympic Committee partners, Hilton Hotel and Erie jointly create "Olympic brand alliance" to start the Olympic strategy of cross border marketing.

In 2011, Anta successfully sold its sales beyond Lining to become the first place in the country. But at the level of brand reputation and so on, Lining still had the advantage, so Anta regarded the 2012 Olympic year as a great opportunity to enhance the brand.

To this end, in the semi annual report of 2011, Anta announced that the rate of advertising and publicity in the mid-term Olympics increased by 0.6 percentage points to 12.6%, and further increased to 14% next year.

In fact, while bidding for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, Anta was actively involved, but failed because of its lack of strength.

With the sponsorship of CBA, China Volleyball League and China table tennis tournament for many years, Anta has finally won the approval of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

After spending the price of the day as the "2009? 2012 Chinese Olympic Committee sports and clothing partner" and "2009? 2012 Chinese sports delegation partners", the sponsorship fee has become the largest one in the Chinese Olympic history.

Lining is too old to be able to do anything.

As China's sports brand magnate, Lining is also actively greeting the London Olympic Games.

Data show that in 2008 alone, Li Ning Co revenue grew by 53.8% over the same period. In the year, the total expenditure on advertising and marketing reached 1 billion 171 million yuan, significantly exceeding the 696 million yuan of the previous year.

Lining himself commented on the performance in 2008: "the Beijing Olympic Games is undoubtedly the focus of 2008. The group successfully grasped this historic opportunity and implemented our integrated marketing strategy, which has made great contributions to enhancing the brand value of the group."

With the opening of the London Olympic Games, Li Ning Co is also trying to find marketing opportunities for the Olympic Games far away from mainland China.

After the adjustment in 2010 and 2011, Lining's orders for the first quarter of 2012 have been stable. Their advertising investment in 2011 has been quite low key, and has retained tremendous strength for 2012.

In May, Li Ning Co launched a series of sports products targeting mass consumers in the name of "salute to heroes".

Li Ning Co said that at the London Olympic Games, Li Ning Co will continue to support China's gymnastics, diving, shooting, table tennis, badminton and other five "dream team", and in June this year officially released its five "gold medal dream team" to provide sports equipment.

Lining's newly released London Olympic team called "battle clothes" is named "red scale", inspired by the 8000 year old dragon scale tiles in Liaoning.

This series of garments is made up of the latest technology of "wee" and has the function of free stretch and comfort, which is lightweight, breathable and free.

Anta and Lining have different marketing strategies.

Besides the big investment, the marketing strategies of Lining and Anta, the two sports giants, are also different.

Lining, as China's sporting goods industry "boss", performance in recent two years is not ideal.

In 2011, 3 indicators such as operating income, gross profit and net profit dropped sharply compared with the same period last year. In the first half of 2012, the order amount of Li Ning Co shoes products decreased by double-digit year by year, while the annual decline of clothing products exceeded 20%.

This summer coincides with the Olympic Games. Li Ning Co carp leapt to Longmen and is bound to prepare for this year's London Olympics.

It is reported that this year's London Olympic Games, Li Ning Co chief executive will use torch to ignite the Olympic flame of Athens, reappear the Olympic spirit, and play the Olympic culture card. Besides, Li Ning Co is still focusing on the equipment of athletes this time.

The sportsman's clothing is the highlight of Lining's marketing. In 2012, he especially highlighted his craft -- the so-called "red scale" series of match suits made of ultrasonic laser technology and semi cutting dragon scale structure.

This also shows that since Lining entered the US market in 2010, he has been digging deep into the efforts of domestic suppliers.

Anta, who is firmly in the "second place" position, has taken the road similar to Lining, which is equipped with the award dress "champion dragon suit" for the Chinese sports delegation.

In May 17th, Anta also launched the ceremonial award ceremony and the Olympic strategy launching ceremony with the theme of "joining the Chinese sports delegation, Dragon King London", and arranged a wonderful appearance of former sports stars Xu Haifeng and Guo Jingjing.

The announcement is not only a stunt, but also a sign of the official start of Anta's London Olympic strategy.

The Olympic Games of the two sports giants are very delicious, and who will be the last winner is still unknown.

In this regard, insiders pointed out that Lining's Olympic marketing layout is narrower than that of Anta, and the momentum is relatively weak. But with the accumulation of influence in Lining's sporting goods brand, then if we can find another way to increase the number of hot spots, we can shift the visual perception of the media from the negative situations before, and on the other hand, we can develop a more upscale brand image.

The marketing campaign of the two sports giants in London is still worth our expectation.